


It isn’t as easy as it looks being a kid

by Rangerstar06



Category: The Darkest Minds
Genre: 8 colours, Mention of Death, Mention of abuse, Mention of blood, Multi, The Darkest Minds - Freeform, The Darkest Minds AU, mention of torture (not much)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-14
Updated: 2019-06-22
Packaged: 2019-10-10 06:24:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17420756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rangerstar06/pseuds/Rangerstar06
Summary: Francesca Thompson is the daughter of two government workers. Her and her best friend Ruby Daly are taken to a camp where they find out they are one of a kind. This is an au where there are 8 colours instead of 5 and Francesca and Ruby both run from the league and going on the adventure of a life time together.





	1. What my world has become

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first ever fan fiction ... I hope you enjoy. In this one not much happens you just hear about the children being taken away on busses and the different abilities they gain. Enjoy and please leave a comment :)

Lucy Baker was the first in my class to get I.A.A.N. Maybe not the very first child but she was the first in my class to die at least. We were just eating our lunch and she was complaining about how her mum wouldn’t let her have anything unhealthy in her lunch. Then while we were having a debate about how our parents should let us eat what we want, she started violently shaking and then her eyes lit up a bright unnatural blue. The cup that was in her hand the started to float in the air and with the movement of her hand, the metal cup was crushed.

Over the next few months over half my class died. We started out as a class of thirty and ended up with only ten of us left. It wasn’t just the kids in my class dying it was happening in classes all over the school. Our teacher told us that we had nothing to worry about and that the kids were just getting sick. They told us that we might not get sick and that was all they told us. My parents were a bit different from the teachers at my school, they were a bit more direct with me. Instead of telling me that everything was going to be fine they told me what wad really happening. My parents both worked with the government and they saw everything that was happening. They told me all about I.A.A.N and all about the treatment they were trying to find. 

Over the next few weeks I saw various lots of kids get carted of from school in the yellow busses we got to school everyday. Although instead of our normal friendly driver John, they were armed men and women wearing bullet proof vests and holding big, heavy machine guns. I never saw the kids on those busses again. Shortly after the busses started coming more frequently my parents told me that I couldn’t go to school anymore. I was in 4th grade, and school was important to me because I loved to learn. 

On my last day of school my teacher gave me a letter that was only for my parents, and she said that if I opened it I would be in a lot of trouble and she would put me on one of the school busses. Even though I was scared about being put on one of those busses and never seeing my family or friends again, I opened the letter any way and was shocked at what I saw. It was a list of all the different types of “conditions” that the kids could get from I.A.A.N. There were 8 different colours on the piece of paper, and all 8 were in 3 different sections. The first section is the greens, the one who had just become really smart, those were the ones who didn’t need any restraints. The second section was the blues, who had telekinetic abilities, the golds, who could manipulate electricity , the pinks, who could manipulate any liquid, and the whites who could control the weather. The colours in the second section were the ones who needed hand cuffs on and they had the wear things over their hands at all times, they had to wear clothes that had gloves stitched to them so they could bloke all the signals that they transmitted through their hands. The third and final section had the reds, who could control and manipulate fire, the oranges, who could control the mind and the blacks, who could injure any part of a human or animals body, but they could also fix it. The last section was the one full of the rarest types of the colours and the ones that are considered the most dangerous so those ones are to be killed when found.

Included on the list, was a list of the signs to look out for to tell if your child was infected by I.A.A.N or not. I looked at the list and I already had half the symptoms on the list. At the bottom of the piece of paper it said to contact the local government official if your child was showing any off the symptoms on the list. It said that once the official was contacted they would get in touch with the family about when they would collect the child and then take them to a rehabilitation facility where they would cure the child and once they were cured and 100% better they could then go home. When I realised that my parents were the areas local government officials I was horrified about what they were doing. 

When I got home my best friend ruby was sitting in my house with hand cuffs on in just her pyjamas while my parents were questioning her about what happened. She was curled up in a a ball on our sofa with her hair so tangled up you could probably put your hand in there and never be able to pull it out again. The hand cuffs on her wrists were done up so tight that I could see the red marks where they were rubbing on her bare skin and her feet where bare where she hadn’t had enough time to put her shoes on, and I guess no one had really paid her bare feet any attention or even cared that she had stepped on a piece of broken glass and her foot had been dripping blood all across our living room floor. Ruby’s pyjamas were covered in mud and her pyjamas top sleeve was shredded to pieces where they had previously man handled her. Her face was covered in dirt and bruises where they had probably pushed her to the floor when they took her away from her home and from the looks of it they had either kicked her or worn their boots on their hands, because there was a boot print across her stomach.

When they saw me standing there my parents whispered something to the officers who I presumed had man handled my best friend, and when they were done speaking to her one of them pulled a pair of hand cuffs out from behind their back and started walking towards me. When they tried to put the hand cuffs on me I elbowed one of them in the ribs and I swear I heard a crack but when I touched the. Placed I elbowed he seemed to feel better because he then grabbed my hands and put the hands cuffs around my hand to tight and after that I could barely feel my hand let alone fight back two big fully grown men with one hand. Once they had both my hands in hand cuffs I was kicking and fling my legs around trying to hit someone but instead of hitting someone they injected me with some thing that sent me into a weird half sleep but that made me temporarily paralysed. The last thing I remembered before I blacked out was my dad saying “ take care of her, I you hurt either her or Ruby I will hunt you down and get you thrown in the camps with the reds and the oranges”.


	2. The bus ride from hell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ruby and Francesca are on the bus. When a surprising event happens and the beginning of her powers begin to show, but she thinks she is going mad. Then an unlikely friend aappears

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mention of blood and a bit of abuse through most of the chapter. Sorry if this causes any inconvenience. Enjoy this chapter and please leave a comment :)

I don’t remember ever climbing into the officer’s car or even getting to school, the only thing I remember is being man handled on to a school bus by a women holding about 5 different types of weapons. As I was pushed on the bus I tripped over a mans foot as he stood in my way. When he asked my name, before I could tell him my name the women behind me said “her and the Daly girl are under the protection of the Thompson residence, they are to ride in the front where an officer will sit with them at all times and they are not to hurt either of them”

The officer replied in a sarcastic tone to the women “ since you are not my commanding officer why do I have to listen to what ever B.S you are saying “.

The women then reminded him that “if you don’t do what they ask they will strip you of your privileges and then feed you to the reds”. After she said that the man rolled his eyes and allowed me and Ruby onto the bus. Once me and Ruby where on the bus I saw that Ruby and I where the only two people who were bleeding from our wrists. I wasn’t as bad as Ruby but the officers had put the hand cuffs on our wrists so tight that they had started to cut into our skin. I took my hand and put it onto her wrists, when I touched her she flinched away but she soon began to relax as I spread my hands over her swollen and bleeding wrists. 

When I took my hands off not only had I got blood all over my hands and the blood was dark red and black and was kind of sticking to my hand. When I looked over at Ruby the cuts on her hands had healed and the swelling had gone down, I asked her “am I imagining it or did you have cuts on your hands a few minutes ago?”

She just shrugged her shoulders like she didn’t know what I was talking about. I then looked over at her feet and the blood had disappeared from her feet as well. It’s as if I was imagining the cuts and the swelling and when I touched her it all came back into focus and I saw what was really there. It still didn’t explain the blood on my hands. 

While my head was swimming or more like drowning in my thoughts, we had set off and I have no idea how long we had been driving for but it wasn’t that long before we passed the West Virginia goodbye sign. I had lived in London until I was 8 and that was how I met Ruby. When I moved to West Virginia because of my parents job she was The one who showed me around the school and she helped me out when I was in trouble.

Even though I had been born and basically raised in London my home was in West Virginia with my mum and dad and my best friend Ruby. Now though I was being carted a way to be treated for my condition and my parents didn’t care. When I looked out of the window I couldn’t see anything other than the blur of the trees and what looked like abandoned cars as we sped down the highway. As I looked around the bus I saw officers placed all over the bus and on every seat about 4 or 5 kids were squished together in the same condition as me and my best friend even though we had more room to move.

As we started to slow down the deafening silencing of the bus erupted with shouting and crying and I thought I heard some people being sick. When the bus pulled to a complete stop I looked out the window and I saw I sign that read “welcome to Thurmond”. I was about to ask the officer next to me what Thurmond was but before I could she grabbed my arm and chucked me around the bus. When I got to the door the man kicked me of the bus and I landed in a pile on the floor and saw a lot of feet on the floor pointing in my direction. 

By the time I got up the group of people had dispersed as the officers sorted them into groups of ten. While the last of the people was getting of I started to stand up, but as I turned away from the bus I heard a scream. I shot around like a bullet, what I saw was a women dead on the frowned, several kids running towards the gate and a kid I saw at the back of the bus was on the ground being jump on by 12 different people and they were spraying a large orange x on the back of his white hoodie that was covered in blood from where the women officer shot him in the mouth earlier.

They dragged the kid away in a muzzle and hand cuffs and they grabbed the rest of us and one officer shouted louder than the rest saying “you are all now going in for testing, all of you younger than 12 are going in, in twos where you will get you designated colour together”. That made me feel better as I looked around for Ruby.

When I could not find Ruby I looked around for the closest officer and said “ my name is Francesca Thompson and I was looking for my friend Ruby Daly, do you know where she is?”

The officer then looked at me in a funny way and replied with “ so you’re the kid who has to be protected, I’m the one that is going to be in charge of you and your friend if you are both in green so if you need anything just ask me and I’ll see what I can do. Oh and about your friend she is over there looking for you.” 

She pointed over to where Ruby was standing and I could of jumped out of my skin when I saw the officer she was talking to slap her across the face. Before I went over to help my friend I turned around and said to the officer “what is your name by the way?”

The officer just smiled and said “Rachael smith, but you can just call me Rach”


	3. The in-twined

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Francesca has a confrontation with a certain someone, and they find out their powers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for it being so late school has been really busy and also I am lazy soooo.... enjoy and comment :)

As I started to walk away I felt someone grab my arm and start to pull me away from the direction of my best friend. I tried to pull away but the person who was holding my arm tightened their grip and wouldn’t let go of my arm. As their grip on my arm got tighter I turned around to see who was grabbing my arm. The person who had my arm in their tight hold was non other than school bully Martin Lewis. As I turned around and saw Martin a smile crept across his face with a sinister look upon it.”let go of my arm Martin.” I growled at him but he just grabbed my wrist tighter.

As my knees began to give way under me, I looked into martins eyes and saw them glow like Lucy’s but more of a more orange glow instead and then it clicked. Peoples eyes glow different vibrant colours depending on the colours of their powers. If martins eyes were glowing orange that then meant that he was able to manipulate the mind. If Martin was able to manipulate the mind I wondered what power I have. 

Martin then replied back by saying “ and what makes you think that you can tell me what to do, I think that I should be the one telling you what to do little lady.” After he said that I used my free hand and grabbed his wrist and started squeezing it really tight. A little while later I heard a cracking noise and let go of his arm. I looked up and saw the look of horror and disgust on his face as my hand dropped down to my side.

As soon as he let go of my arm I ran straight over to ruby and grabbed her arm. She asked me what was wrong and all I could tel, her was that Martin grabbed my arm and wouldn’t let go. After I finished telling the story I started to drag ruby to the line where all under twelves were grouped of in pairs and sent off into different rooms following doctors.

As me and Ruby stood in the queue waiting to be taken to be sorted, she grabbed my hand and squeezed it tight. As I looked over at her I saw her eyes glowing orange, then all of a sudden there was an image in my head. It was of Ruby on the night of her tenth birthday where she was talking to her mum. Then it quickly flashed to the morning afterwards and her parents had locked her in the garage. Ruby was shouting for her mum but the women who she called her mother just kept saying over and over again, “I’m not your mum, I have no children.”

As the image in my head disappeared I quickly took my hand away from Ruby’s. I looked back up and I saw that Ruby was crying, tears were pouring down her face as she looked up at me and asked,”am I a monster?” I looked her dead in the eyes grabbed her hand and brought them close to my heart, I started to hum the song that her mum sang to her when she went to bed every night and simply replied in a calm voice, “if anybody is the monster it is my parents, the government and those stupid people to scared of us to teach us how to use these abilities we have.”

After what I said ruby looked at me and simply sighed. The tears had now dried from her face and her breathing had gone back to normal, before I could say anything else to her a man in a white coat who I presumed was a doctor came up to us and shoved us in a room.

When we got inside the room we sat down on to big chairs in the middle of the room which had a big scanner on top of it. When I sat down to doctor came in carrying a bunch of items. He took 3 steps into the room and then suddenly a louder clenching noise started and the door swung shut behind him. After the door was fully closed the man walked up to me and Ruby and hand cuffed us to the chairs we were sitting in. When my hand cuffs were put on I looked up and for some reason all I could think about was hurting this man for what he was doing to us, I imagined breaking every bone in his body. 

Before I could continue the man was asking us for our names. After names were said he asked us if we were given a colour assignment. We both said no and then he started explaining it. He told us with a very annoyed look on his face, “damn psi soldiers getting lazy, anyway the way the system works is you have the greens who are safe, then the blues, whites, pinks and golds,, who need hand restraints. Then when you get past this line here(He’s pointing at a graph) these are the rarest and the most dangerous, you have the reds, oranges and blacks.” After he finished talking he sat up straight as if suddenly realising something. He opened his mouth to speak but before he could a psi officer came into the room and shouted for him to hurry up.

Before the doctor could say anything to the officer the man slammed the door. 5 or so minutes later the doctor got up and came over to us. He asked us one more simple question, he said roughly while tightening my hand strap, “ are you good at puzzles?” I replied in the most innocent voice I could, “to be honest I’ve always been smart for my age, but I don’t think I am a green if that is what your referring to, to be honest I’m probably a white.” With a shocked look on the doctors face of my knowledge of the disease and it’s different conditions I told him, “my parents work for the government and told me everything they thought I needed to know.”

With that knowledge under his belt he simply stared at me and clicked a big button. All of a sudden a loud noise came on over my head, I looked up and saw, the machine that they used to scan our brains turn blue and start scanning ruby and my brains. The noise carried on for about 10 more minutes and every so often I would look over to the doctor he looked very confused. Once the noise stopped he picked up a needle and said to me, “did your parents ever tell you about what we call the in-twined?”

I looked at him with a confused look on his face and shook my head, after the motion he just looked at me and said, “it’s when a person has more then one type of condition. Those are the most rare and there are about 2 in the world.” As the confused look on face grew he then turned around and said “ Ruby do you know what condition you have?” After she shook her head he said in a really sympathetic tone, “you my dear are an orange, and Francesca you are a …”


	4. Everything revealed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everything has been revealed about the powers and Francesca and ruby are about to find out just what ruby is capable of. There may or not be a miniature run in with Sam as well

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi sorry I haven’t posted in a few months the creative juices just weren’t flowing and i had a lot of tests at school. Here is chapter four and from now on i am posting once a month so look out! Enjoy and thanks for reading !

Chapter 4

“Francesca you my dear are a green.” Suddenly my chest grew lighter as I let out the breath I didn’t know I was holding. When the doctor told me I was green I was so relieved that I forgot what was going to happen my best friend sitting in the chair next to me. I forgot my parents didn’t want me anymore, and I forgot hat I was stuck in a place with an ugly bully and no escape.

After every good thought had rushed through my brain I remembered the girl who sat next to me, shivering to death, was going to be secluded from the rest of the camp, and was going to have to wear a muzzle. She was going to be treated like B.S. and I just couldn’t bare it. Before I could do anything the doctor had grabbed a muzzle and was walking up to her. Before I could tell what was happening the man was whispering his apologies to ruby and started lifting it over her head. She sat their quietly as he started walking closer but when she saw that he had an injection in his hand that could kill her she started to panic.

I could see that the doctor was sad about what he was about to do but he just continued to walk past me and straight up to Ruby. I started to pull against my restraint but they just started to cut into my wrists. I could see with every step that the doctor took that Ruby’s chest was growing tighter as it filled with panic. I screamed “leave her alone, if you’re going to kill anyone kill me”. The doctor wiped around and glared at me and then turned back to Ruby. He raised the needle up to Ruby’s and said “I’m so sorry but I have to do this so that everyone can be safe”. He went to push the needle into Rubys arm but her arm shot up from the restraints and grabbed onto the doctors wrist. I could tell from where I was sitting that she had a death grip on his wrist and if she squeezed hard enough she could break his wrist. Instead of squeezing harder she looked directly into his eyes and said as her eyes glowed bright orange “I am a green, I am safe. I am not an orange the machine made a mistake”. After she let go the doctor walked in a zombie like state over to the computer and changed her colour the green and walked back over to me and Ruby and started to release our restraints. When he had released our restraints he went over to a cupboard and took a pair of matching white out fits and a green spray can. He told us to go to the adjoining bathroom and to get dressed, once we were done he had us turn around and used the spray can to spray a giant green cross on our backs. He then handed us a pair of plimsolls and told us to put them on. When we were finished he opened up the door and shouted at one of the guards “we have a pair of 124557’s ones a 298744 the other a 312548”. When the guard came up to us and started to march us down the hallway he then shouted at the guard from a distance “and we are under strict orders not to hurt them and to keep them together at all costs”.

After the testing the guard led us out of the building and made us stop to inspect us on last time. Once he was shaw we looked presentable he started walking of again and took us through row after row of wooden cabins. We through another few rows and then the guard came to a stop out side a cabin. He moved his head in a gesture that seemed as though he wanted us to follow him inside. He walked inside and then we followed. Inside the cabin all the girls came to a quiet halt as we walked in. The guard gestured to a set of bunk beds and said to us “this is where you sleep, and there are a few rules 1) no talking after lights out 2) no talking during work hours 3) no trying to escape and the most important rule 4) follow everything any officer or worker on the establishment tells you”.

After that he turned around walked out the door he turned the light out and exited. When the door was fully closed you could here the jingling of the guards Keyes as he tried to find the right one. A few seconds later the faint click of the lock echoed around the cabin as it clicked into place. The guard sighed and then you could here his foots steps grow fainter as he walked away. The girls around them all blew out a sigh of relief as the guard walked away and left them all in peace. The room was silent for a few more seconds before someone broke the silence, “so you are the new recruits huh, well I’m Sam and lets get one thing straight I’m in charge here and you do what I say is that clear”? I was stunned for a second before I replied with “yeah that’s clear, but don’t expect me to do what you say”, and with that I walked to my bunk and fell asleep on the concrete slab they call a mattress.

That was the last time that I ever talked to Ruby again, as my innocent best friend from school.


End file.
